Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When the neon lights blaze, we cannot but be helped to be drawn to them, to witness the message they powerfully place into our minds, to acknowledge the subliminal mindset of advertising, or if we are more involved with the signals beaming down from outer space, the news that somewhere, somehow, someone Shot A Satellite and the repercussions are electric, bountiful and mysterious and full of intrigue for what is to come.
The second single to be taken from the Erasure’s new album, The Neon, Shot A Satellite, sees Andy Bell and Vince Clarke once more captivate their fans with a pulse of imagination that has been their trademark and relished signature groove since they first came together; the gravity of illumination swears several oaths to fun, to passion and to the downing of any machine that doesn’t offer the swell of optimism and confidence in its use, or in its ultimate delivery.
Great Pop is an art that steadfastly refuses to bow in the direction of any other genre, there is respect, there is a gracious appeal to the senses, but the music is firmly its own director, its own team and with its own specialised heartbeat, one that Erasure have always flown the flag of, arguably more so than any other in the last 35 years.
Shot A Satellite is the figurine of Pop, delicate but brutally cool, too good for the shelf where others allow their works to become like ornaments, never to be touched, to be handled, in case under the scrutiny of the short gaze because the cracks and the joins will be seen. Instead this is the musical personification of the public sculpture in the main square, everyone can see it, have their picture taken with it, plaster their love for it all over the realm of social media, and if it should be so, allow time to add to its beauty, like the Venus de Milo, it’s allure is to be appreciated regardless of how it is viewed.
Those neon lights are calling, the satellite has fallen, what we are left with is the beauty of the early machine, not only going strong, but fully functioning and lighting up the sky around it.
Erasure release their new album, The Neon, on August 21st via Mute.
Ian D. Hall